QuirkyAppOfTheDay:SwapLettersAndTilesInKillboHD

Killbo HD (Free) by John Daniel Bagwell III is a word game that will have your head spinning from the rapid changes to the game board. Letters swap out, and some rows become grayed. At first glance, it’s pandemonium. With a little understanding, this could be your next favorite word game.

The first thing you need to do is to read the instructions. That will certainly save you a lot of grief. I was arrogant enough to think that I could just jump right in. I was wrong. I’m adult enough to admit that. The game made absolutely no sense.

Once I read the instructions, I learned that you can only select tiles that are touching in some way. This would explain the grayed out lines. The board is preventing me from being able to select tiles that aren’t touching.

There are also tiles around the edges of the board. They’re smaller, and you can’t actually select them. When you choose a tile next to them, that first tile disappears, and the smaller one replaces it. This means that you can’t use the same tile twice.

There are bonus words at the top of the screen. If you make one of those words, you’ll earn extra points. The word you used will be replaced with a new one. There will always be three bonus words for you to aim for.

There’s a timer that counts down once you push the start button. You have three minutes to find as many words as possible. When the timer runs out, the game will tally up your score. Words that are longer are worth more points.

There are other ways to earn more points. For example, purple tiles are worth triple points, and green tiles are worth double points. You can also turn on the multiplier feature. If you select the random option, all of the letters will be assigned a random point value from one to three points. If you select the usage option, popular letters will be given a lower point value and X and Z will be worth more.

There are ads that run along the bottom of the screen. They don’t interfere with gameplay. There isn’t an option to remove the ads.

This game is challenging and satisfying. The rules take a little while to get used to, but one you figure them out, it’s a great game to play.